Environmental Engineering

What the Numbers Say About Environmental Engineering

0.1% of the federal civilian workforce (2,289,472 employees total, March 2025) works in the Environmental Engineering occupation (OPM code 819): 3,098 people, headcount down -4.0% versus the prior period, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path.

The average salary for Environmental Engineering is $132,421 per year, placing it 20.5% above the overall federal civilian average of $109,869. Salaries moved up by 2.4% from the prior period, a broad shift as locality pay tables and grade-level adjustments moved through the workforce. Average length of service in this role is 16.4 years, a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement.

Environmental Engineering sits inside the Engineering and Architecture Group family (code 8), which contains 29 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Environmental Engineering postings should also review these sibling occupations, since federal hiring managers often cross-post positions across closely related codes when recruitment is difficult. All figures here come directly from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes, the same official source referenced in federal workforce planning, budget justifications, and GAO reports.

Environmental Engineering makes up 2.2% of the 142,526 employees across the Engineering and Architecture Group family, ranking #10 of 29 occupations in that family by headcount. Its average salary ranks in the top half (62nd percentile) of pay among Engineering and Architecture Group occupations.